Esphigmenou Monastery - Architecture

Architecture

The monastery is home to various important structures. Although the monastery dates back as early as the 5th century, the current structures were built mainly during the first half of the 19th century. The general outline of the monastery is a rectangular wall which forms a spacious inner courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard lies the catholicon surrounded by the wings that house the monks' cells, the guest-house and the refectory.

Its catholicon, which is dedicated to the Ascension of Christ, was built by the abbot Theodoritos, between 1806 and 1810. It is built at the site of an earlier catholicon and in the manner of Athonite churches. It was inaugurated by Patriarch Gregory V in 1811. The construction of the catholicon was greatly aided by personal donations from Bishop Ignatius of Kassandreia. The temple itself is spacious and majestic and bears eight domes on its lead-covered roof, the central dome being the largest. The marble used for its construction was transported to Athos from Tinos, the place of origin of the church's architect, Paul.

The nave of the catholicon was decorated with iconography in 1811 and the sanctuary in 1818 by the iconographers Veniamin, Zacharias and Makarios. The decoration was completed in 1841 with iconography of the narthex by the iconographers Ioasaf, Nikiforos, Gerasimos and Anthimos. The altar, the iconostasis, as well as other features of the temple, date back to this era. The iconostasis in particular, which depicts scenes from the Old and the New Testaments, is carved wood, covered with golden plating and is considered one of the most important post-Byzantine iconostases in Athos. The catholicon also has two chapels, a vestibule and a porch, added in 1845 by Ecumenical Patriarch Anthimus VI of Constantinople, a previous Esphigmenite monk.

Outside the southeastern corner of the catholicon there is a font (Greek: Φιάλη), that is used to keep holy water. It was built in 1815 by the abbot Euthymios, at the site of an older similar structure that dated from the time of John V Palaiologos. The structure is roofed by a dome that is held up by eight marble columns, connected by sculpted marble metopes.

The refectory is the oldest building in the monastery. It is a semi-detached building in the west wing, across from the catholicon. It is a rectangular building, renovated in 1810 by Abbot Euthymios. Its iconography, dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries still survives, albeit greatly damaged by the fires that the Ottoman soldiers lit to accommodate themselves during their stay in the monastery during the Greek revolutionary war.

The monastery also has 13 chapels, eight inside the main complex and five outside. Among the inner chapels, the most important are the chapel of the Presentation of Mary and the chapel of the Archangels at the sides of the catholicon. The other inner chapels are distributed at various sites inside the monastery and contain no frescoes but house important icons. Of the outer chapels, the most notable is the chapel of Saint Anthony of Kiev, the founder of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, that lies just across from the monastery.